


I never signed up for any of this 'magic' bullshit

by draagonfly



Category: DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Rating May Change, my knowledge of flowers and fairies is minimal at best so please bear with me okay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-04-17 03:59:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4651374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/draagonfly/pseuds/draagonfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He came back to himself partially when he realized he was touching the flower, stroking the petals with more gentility than he had ever touched anything in his entire life. He was aware how strange it was, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. It was just as soft as it looked, and Sly swore he could feel a strange energy pulsing from the petals to his fingertips, making something within him vibrate in a way he had never felt before.<br/>-<br/>Alternatively: Sly talks to a plant and gets far more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HUUUUUUGE shoutout to [gliaway](http://www.gliaway.tumblr.com) for coming up with this idea and for allowing me to indulge myself in it ♥ ♥ ♥
> 
> These will be short chapters for now, but they may increase in length as I go along, we'll see.
> 
> Enjoy!~

Sly had never been one for sentimentality. He typically regarded anything that had to do with feelings as a waste of time and energy. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t feel anything; he was just very good at avoiding situations that would evoke anything besides excitement or satisfaction. That was one of the reasons he often found himself wandering the city all day and only returning home late at night, when he was sure his grandmother was asleep. He didn’t like the lectures and disappointed glares she gave him – they made him feel guilty, and guilt was not on his list of acceptable emotions.

Because of his daily walks, he was more than familiar with almost all of Midorijima. He knew every alley, every shortcut, areas to avoid, and places where he was most likely to be able to pick a fight if he wanted. So when he came across a shop he had never seen before, he was understandably curious. Curiosity very rarely struck him, and he was sure he was overstepping the emotional boundaries he had set for himself, but the temptation was greater than the resistance so he cautiously approached the window and peered inside.

The inside was fairly nondescript as far as Sly could tell. It was just an average flower shop, with rows and rows of expertly potted plants and carefully arranged bouquets in every color under the sun. Roses in every color took up almost an entire wall by themselves, standard red, white, and pink on one end to the less common blue, purple, and even black on the other. He saw forget-me-nots, orchids, daisies, even bonsai trees, and he vaguely wondered how it was even possible to keep all those different flowers alive in one room. Then again he was hardly a flower expert. He didn’t care enough to think too hard about it, so after a few minutes of observation he turned away, intending to forget all about the shop and continue on his way.

‘Intending to’ was as far as he got however, before one of the flowers caught his eye. He wasn’t sure of the name, but it was about 20 centimeters tall, a bright vibrant blue, almost the exact shade of his own hair, with the softest looking petals he had ever seen. He would question the motivation behind his actions later; for now he was too captivated by this single flower to realize how strange it was to be so drawn to a plant. He was so focused on the strange blue petals that he didn’t notice when his feet moved him sideways towards the door of the shop, or when the retro-style bell above the door jingled as he pulled it open and stepped inside, or when the shop owner called out a friendly “Welcome!” as he walked distractedly between tables and pots.

He came back to himself partially when he realized he was touching the flower, stroking the petals with more gentility than he had ever touched anything in his entire life. He was aware how strange it was, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. It was just as soft as it looked, and Sly swore he could feel a strange energy pulsing from the petals to his fingertips, making something within him vibrate in a way he had never felt before.

“It’s yours, if you want it.” Sly snapped fully back to reality at the voice that was far closer than he had been expecting.

“W-what?!” He cursed himself internally for sounding so ridiculous. Sly Blue didn’t stutter. And he definitely didn’t care enough about a stupid flower to get this distracted. He crossed his arms defiantly in an attempt to regain his sense of apathy. “Why would I want it?”

The man seemed to be completely unaffected by Sly’s change in attitude as he shrugged his shoulders. “Truthfully, you’re the first to show any interest in it at all. Most people don’t give it a second glance. And it matches your hair so perfectly, I thought it would be a shame if you didn’t take it.”

Sly was unimpressed with the explanation, and was fully prepared to walk out without another word. But the moment he made up his mind, he swore he saw the flower sag just slightly, as though disappointed Sly was going to leave it there. Flowers weren’t sentient, of course Sly knew that, but that didn’t stop from almost feeling bad for abandoning it like everyone else had.

‘What the hell, get it together.’ This flower was causing him far more trouble than he ever thought a flower could, so he turned on his heel and stomped out before it got any worse.

-

Less than hour later found Sly sitting on the floor of his bedroom staring at the plant that had disrupted his day by merely existing. If it had been disappointed earlier when Sly was going to leave it behind, now it was excited, standing tall and humming with energy. Literally, Sly could hear a faint buzz that he was sure was coming from the flower in front of him. If he had landed himself with a radioactive plant, Granny would kill him. He narrowed his eyes, glaring at the vibrant blue, already blaming it for what he was about to do.

“Are you really that happy to be here?” He couldn’t believe it. Here he was, here _Sly Blue_ was, talking to a goddamn plant. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Just as he was thinking he needed to get his head checked out, the humming stopped and the room was left in an eerie quiet. Sly froze, waiting for something, anything, to happen. He would have been satisfied if the plant itself exploded, as long as it stopped making him so anxious.

It didn’t explode, but what happened instead made him wish it had. Or maybe it did, and the force had knocked him unconscious, stuck inside his own head and dreaming up ridiculous things that he would forget about immediately upon waking up.

There were no bright lights, no deafening _bang_ – one second he was staring warily at a strange plant, then he blinked and he was staring less warily and more dumbly at a tiny person standing in a flower pot. He blinked again, and again, and again, but the person (was it even a person?) continued to stand there, looking almost bashful and smiling up at him.

Sly liked to think he was a reasonable human being, if not a bit brash and aloof, and that he had a decent grip on reality and the types of things he was likely to encounter in said reality. Flowers that turned into small people were not in that category. As he was coming to terms with the fact that a person the size of a small dog had appeared in his bedroom, he belatedly began to notice the appearance of said person.

The first thing Sly noticed was that, aside from being smaller than any person could realistically be, they had equally tiny wings protruding from their shoulder blades. They were the same hue as the flower had been but more transparent, seeming to sparkle in the sunlight coming in from the window. They fluttered slowly, much like a butterfly’s would, elegant and fragile.

The second thing he noticed was the intricacy of the person’s clothes. Layers upon layers of cloth were draped over and around them, a darker blue than their wings but just as delicate. The fabric wrapped tightly around their waist and looser over their hips and thighs, stopping just above their knees and contrasting beautifully against their pale skin.

Finally, Sly’s eyes landed on the person’s face, and that was when Sly became convinced he was either dreaming or insane. Their face was framed by long hair the same color as their wings, with shorter bangs falling over their forehead and almost into their light golden eyes. Long blue hair, and bright gold eyes – a near exact match to Sly’s own. The more he took in, the more he realized that this tiny flower-turned-person looked _exactly like him_. If it weren’t for the blush that stained their cheeks at the intensity of Sly’s gaze, and the fact that they were about one tenth his height, Sly could’ve been looking in a mirror.

Finally, after who-knows-how-many long minutes, Sly found his voice.

“What the actual fuck is going on?!”


	2. Chapter 2

“What the actual fuck is going on?!”

Sly’s voice was much louder than he had expected it to be, but decided it was understandable given the circumstances. It wasn’t exactly a normal thing to come face to face with a miniature, magical version of yourself. At his outburst, the creature only tilted its head to the side as though confused by the question. It made Sly irrationally angry.

“Okay, how about this. What are you, and why the hell do you have my face?” The fairy – Sly had decided that’s what it was – glanced around the room casually before settling its gaze on the mirror in the corner and flying – _flying_ , with its _wings_ – over to hover before it. They seemed to be taking in their appearance, from the flowing blue hair to the paleness of their legs, and finally met Sly’s eyes in the reflection, speaking in a voice so airy and calm it almost drained Sly of his anger. Almost.

“I’m a flower spirit, kind of like a nymph or a dryad, but you can refer to me as a fairy if you’d like. That seems to be the term most familiar to humans.” The fairy – spirit? – turned and fluttered to hover directly in front of Sly, causing him to take a cautious step back and tense his muscles, ready to attack the creature should it become hostile. It obviously noticed however, and retreated a ways to a more comfortable distance while an almost guilty look took over its features. Sly had never seen himself make that sort of face, and it unnerved him how alien it seemed. “As for why we look alike, it probably had something to do with my awakening. I’m not sure of the details myself.” They looked genuinely apologetic and Sly furrowed his brows, both annoyed at the lack of useful information and at the way the fairy displayed expressions that had never had a place on Sly’s face.

“Well I never signed up for any of this magic bullshit, so go ahead and turn back into a plant so I can take you back to that god forsaken shop.” A look-alike fairy was not in Sly’s plans for the day, or week, or ever, and he wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.

“Take me back…?” Sly’s annoyance at the situation disappeared entirely at the despair in the fairy’s eyes. He couldn’t fathom why, but he felt that maybe he had been too rash, maybe this fairy wasn’t so bad after all…

‘What the hell am I thinking, this thing is going to be a giant pain in the ass. I need to get rid of it _now_.’ He mentally slapped himself for his weakness. Sly Blue was not weak, and Sly Blue did not give into the whims of weird flower people.

“Yeah, back. This isn’t some fantasy RPG and I’m not taking care of a god damn fairy with my own god damn face.” Sly steeled his expression, closing himself off to whatever trick this creature would throw at him. Nothing would shake his resolve. Sly hated troublesome things, and he knew that this fairy was the epitome of troublesome. It was going back to the shop, and Sly would never think about it again. He was an expert at closing himself off, so this was no problem.

Until he saw the first tear fall down the fairy’s cheek.

He had never felt such a deep sadness for another living being, and in that moment his resolve crumbled around him. “H-hey, don’t cry, wait, shit… no, okay, you can stay, you can stay! Jesus, what’s wrong with me?” He stumbled between trying (and likely failing, he had never actually done this before) to console the now sobbing fairy, and muttering to himself.

“Please stop crying, you can stay here okay, I won’t take you back to the stupid shop, I swear, just…” The fairy’s sobs slowly lessened into sniffles, and Sly heard a choked “Promise?” that nearly broke his heart in two. He wasn’t liking the whole ‘actually feeling emotions’ thing, and it had barely been ten minutes. He huffed to mask his discomfort. “First thing to know about me, I am a lot of things, but a liar is not one of them. I said you can stay, so you can stay.”

The sniffles all but disappeared then, leaving a red-eyed but smiling fairy fluttering its wings happily as it moved forward to wrap its arms around Sly’s neck in what must have been an attempt at a hug. Sly stiffened at the gesture, completely foreign to him as it was, and had to physically restrain himself from reaching up and tossing the fragile creature across the room. Sly hadn’t hugged or been hugged in years, and it brought about a strange feeling of warmth from somewhere deep inside him. But he couldn’t say he hated it.

After what seemed like hours, his neck was released and the fairy flew over to sit on Sly’s pillow, looking towards him expectantly. He walked over and sat down far more gently than probably necessary, fearing that too much force would end with a fairy pancake on his ceiling. Sparkling golden eyes looked up at him with such happiness Sly wanted to throw up, but he contained himself and laid down so they were nearly eye level with each other.

“So, what’s your name? Do fairies, or spirits or whatever even have names?”

It tapped its chin thoughtfully for a moment before replying. “We do, though it’s nearly impossible to translate into any human language. It’s more of a collection of energy waves than a sound.”

That sounded far too complicated for Sly’s tastes. “Well, what do I call you then?” The fairy took another moment to contemplate.

“Why don’t you give me a name?”

“Hah? Name you? Like a pet?” As weird as this all was, Sly felt as though even this strange plant person deserved more respect than a domesticated animal.

“Sure, I guess. Though it’s more for your convenience than anything. Personally, I don’t mind remaining nameless.” Somehow that didn’t sit right with Sly either. How he had managed to get so attached in such a short amount of time was beyond him. Still, he wasn’t just going to pick a name on a whim like most people did with dogs or cats. This fairy had managed to wrangle Sly Blue, demon of Midorijima, and it deserved a name that would do it justice. Come to think of it, referring to this person as ‘it’ was pretty cruel, even for Sly.

“Hey, do you plant people have like, genders or whatever?”

“Not really. Though, since I essentially took your form, I suppose that makes me a male like you are.” Sly considered that and deemed it sensible. So the fairy- no, _he_ really was a tiny version of Sly, down to the blue hair and gold eyes, but was also a plant in humanoid form…

Suddenly, Sly knew exactly what to call him.

“Aoba. Your name is Aoba.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sly is awoken at an ungodly hour for something incredibly important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ♥♥♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLIA!!!!! ♥♥♥  
> It's still your birthday where I am, but I think I'm late according to your timezone. I'm so sorry orz  
> This chapter is dedicated to you, because I know you love SlyAo as much as I do, and because this whole AU was your idea in the first place.  
> That said, I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out, and there are probably a bunch of mistakes because I just really wanted to get it out semi-on time, so I'll probably revise it a bunch later on. Maybe. Hopefully...  
> Anyway, please enjoy, and I hope you had a wonderful birthday :D

“Sly, psst, Sly!”

Tired golden eyes opened slowly as Sly was pulled away from his dream already slipping away.

“Sly! Wake up, it’s important!”

“Huh? Wha’s important?” The urgency clouding the tiny voice in his ear motivated him to wake up slightly faster than he would have otherwise. This fairy – Aoba, as Sly had decided to call him – had been staying with him for around a week now, and it was easily the oddest week of Sly’s entire life, which he felt was saying something. Aoba mostly stayed in Sly’s bedroom, napping, or sometimes humming a tune that Sly felt he vaguely recognized but couldn’t quite place. At first he had attempted to accompany Sly whenever he left the house, but it was difficult to pick fights and play Rhyme with a tiny person that only he could see on his shoulder, so they had quickly given up on that.

“Let’s go outside!” Outside. Of course, Aoba wanted to go outside. Sly wasn’t quite awake enough to fully comprehend the request, choosing to ignore it for the moment.

“What time is it?” Rubbing his eyes, he fumbled around in the dark for his coil to check the time, too bright LCD numbers causing him to cringe for a few seconds before he could even attempt to read it. 3:14 am.

“I don’t know, but look! Will you come outside with me?”

Barely reigning in his growing anger, Sly took a deep breath and set his coil back down on the night stand. “Are you dying?”

Sly peeked his eyes open, adjusting slowly to the darkness in the room just enough to make out Aoba’s perplexed expression. “Well, no but –“

“Am I dying?” Sly almost felt bad for confusing the creature so much, but the guilt was easily overcome by exhaustion and irritation.

“I, I don’t think so but –“

“Damn. I was hoping I was, put me out of my misery. It is ass o’clock in the morning, Aoba, no way in hell am I going outside.” He turned over to face away from the infuriatingly energetic fairy and attempted to fall back into his dream, whatever it had been about.

“But Sly, it’s raining!”

As though in response to Aoba’s statement, the soft patter of rain against the roof made itself known to Sly’s ears. It was a relaxing sound, helping greatly in lulling him back to sleep.

“…Please?” Damn this fairy and everything he stood for. Over the past week, Sly had come to the unfortunate conclusion that Aoba could ask for quite literally anything with that voice of his and Sly wouldn’t be able to say no. That voice pulled at his heartstrings, the ones that had gone undisturbed for years prior, and pulled him out of his emotionless shell to bow to whatever whims it commanded.

Tonight, apparently, it commanded that they go outside, in the rain, at 3 in the morning.

“Jesus, fine.”

He felt more than saw the happiness brighten Aoba’s features as he hovered in the air near Sly’s pillow for a moment before fluttering over to wait by the door to the veranda.

Sly reluctantly forced himself to sit up, taking a moment to lament the loss of the warmth and comfort of his bed, and swung his legs over the side to stand. His vision went black for a moment, but as soon as it cleared he followed the fairy to the rain splattered door and opened it, inviting in a soft breeze and cool mist.

Aoba immediately darted out the door and past the cover of the awning over the deck, directly into the heart of the gentle rain shower.

“Ahh~ It’s been ages since I was outside in the rain.” He happily flew in a figure eight pattern back and forth across Sly’s vision, seemingly trying to catch every raindrop that fell in his path. As his mind woke up, he realized that maybe he ought to be watering him or something, seeing as he was in fact a plant. But what was he supposed to do, pour water over his head?

“Hey, do you need to be, like, watered or anything? Since you’re a plant and all.”

“Hm?” Aoba stopped flying in circles and returned to sit gracefully on the railing. “Oh, no. It’s just nice to be out in the rain once in a while. It’s refreshing.” As though to prove his point, he leaned backwards to let the rain drops fall on his face and drip down his neck to his shoulders. There was something intimate about the display, the way the water saturated his hair and gathered in the dip of his collarbones.

When he realized what he was thinking, Sly kicked himself mentally and tore his gaze away, suddenly finding the water dripping off of the awning extremely interesting.

“Well, since you’ve had your fun, I’m going back to sleep.” Sly turned, fully intending to bury himself in his blankets and pretend he had never woken up in the first place.

“Ah, wait!” A hand encircled Sly’s wrist to hold him in place, and he couldn’t quite figure out why that was such a strange thing, until he remembered that Aoba’s hands were normally the size of his fingernail. He whipped around so fast his hair caught him in the eye and he cursed much louder than was probably advisable with Granny sleeping just below them.

“What the f-mmph?!”

Aoba’s other hand quickly covered his mouth before his shouts could wake up the whole street.

“Shh, I’m sorry, I forgot this is something else I could do.” Aoba’s voice was suddenly much less airy and light, sounding just like Sly himself, if not a bit higher pitched and less apathetic. “Please don’t yell, you’ll wake Granny.”

Even after only a week, Aoba had quickly learned that Sly’s Granny was not someone they wanted to anger. Sly nodded in understanding and Aoba removed his hand from Sly’s face.

“How the hell do you forget you can grow ten times your normal size?!” Aoba shrugged, a little guilty.

“I don’t know. It takes a lot of energy so I don’t do it often. It was an accident this time.” Sly wanted to be angry, annoyed at the fact that not only did he accidently adopt a plant-person, he apparently also adopted a full-grown magical duplicate of himself. But he wasn’t angry. He was interested, curious to know what else this mythical being could do.

Even more than that, he was too tired to be annoyed at himself for letting the carefully constructed walls around his heart crumble even further when Aoba looked apologetically into his eyes, eyes that now matched each other’s perfectly.

“I’m really sorry for surprising you. But,” Aoba’s hand that still had a grip on Sly’s wrist squeezed harder and he stepped further into Sly’s personal bubble. “Thank you. For letting me stay with you.”

Before he could comprehend what was happening, warm pressure was applied to his right cheek, and the earth stopped spinning for a moment. By the time his mind caught up with his surroundings, Aoba had pulled back and was gazing at him with such fondness that Sly’s first instinct was to run as far away as possible and stomp out the unwarranted reciprocation of that fondness that was creeping up on him. Aoba was a plant. He was actually much more than a plant, but for simplicities sake, he was a plant, and Sly was getting attached.

Sly Blue didn’t get attached to things. Then again, he also didn’t bring home strange plants, or get out of his warm bed in the middle of the night because said plant wanted to go outside. Identity crisis aside, Sly was tired, and Aoba had just kissed him, and he was more than done with this for today.

“…I’m going to bed.” He ripped his hand out of Aoba’s grasp and walked inside, though he made no move to shut the door.

“Ah…” Aoba’s uncertainty of Sly’s reaction was palpable even through that one syllable. Sly’s heart thudded.

“Are you coming? Close the door, it’s fucking cold.”

“O-okay!” Sleep was already taking over his mind as Sly burrowed inside his covers and closed his eyes.

The door slid closed, cutting off the breeze and Aoba’s light footsteps grew closer as Sly’s consciousness drifted farther away.

“Um, Sly, I-“

“I don’t mind.” He cut off what was sure to be another apology, which was something Sly was in no state of mind to handle right now. “I don’t mind you being here.”

It was hardly acceptance, but it was as close as Sly had ever gotten and he trusted Aoba to understand. He didn’t need to see Aoba’s smile to know it was there when he spoke.

“I’m glad.” His voice was back to being small and light, meaning he was no longer human sized, but was back to his normal diminutive self. “Goodnight, Sly.”

Sly had been unsure for a while about naming Aoba as he did, but such a gentle sounding name was fitting for such a gentle being as he was. He thought that ‘Aoba’ fit the fairy much better than it would ever fit himself.

That was the last thought he had before sleep overtook him once again.


End file.
